Fragment of a Band or Border (late 600s–800s): Art, History and Details

Fragment of a Band or Border (late 600s–800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This lively hunting scene features a central figure grappling with a lion. He is flanked by hunters on horseback brandishing swords. The swirling clothing of the hunters and the dynamic poses of the animals give a sense of movement to the band. The entire scene is bordered with a vibrant floral design. Hunting was a popular artistic theme in pre-Islamic traditions, including Sasanian and Assyrian art, and was then adopted into Islamic artistic vernacular.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment of a Band or Border
• Date: late 600s–800s
• Culture: Egypt, Umayyad period (661–750) or Abbasid period (750–1258)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Wool and linen: tapestry weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 12.7 x 21.8 cm (5 x 8 9/16 in.)
• Collection: T - Coptic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1982.110

A detail from the museum

The warp is undyed linen, and the weft is wool for the polychrome and linen for the white.

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Strong, Meghan E. “Art of the Islamic World.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 3 (Summer 2021): 28-30.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.